It feels like we were just luxuriating in Lush Life, the second full-length album from British R&B star Col3trane. The crooner isn’t content with letting any moss grow under his feet, though, and is quickly moving on from the 2022 effort as he readies his next EP Chekhov’s Gun for a Spring 2023 release. While he gets the project together, he offers a preview with his new single “Simp.”
“Simp,” as we all know, can be a derogatory term usually directed at men who give their all in relationships — sometimes to their own detriment. Col3trane is, however, reclaiming the term, as he thinks there’s nothing wrong with wholeheartedly embracing love.
He expresses the sentiment as he stakes his claim to be your one and only. The glitchy, Jersey club-esque chorus is a bop with his singing of the lyric “I want you all to myself” chopped, blipped and screwed to perfection. The verses, meanwhile, evoke “Fill Me In” era Craig David as he rides the beat while pining over a lover in hopes that his feelings will be reciprocated.
“The word simp has such a negative connotation, but to me it’s a beautiful thing…,” he wrote on Instagram. “Not something to be ashamed of. What’s wrong with showing that you care? It doesn’t make you less of a man/woman. [T]akes courage to love.”
“Simp” is a bold departure from what we’ve come to know Col3trane for, but it’s also a welcome one. It remains to be seen what else Chekhov’s Gun has in store, but we know it has at least one banger in the chamber.
Listen to the stream of “Simp” when you press play and get a peek of the song’s soon-to-be released visual in the visualizer below.
